Gar
by Phoenix-sol
Summary: I’m reloading this up; I accidentally deleted it. I broke down the story in to smaller chapters. The story is bound to end up explaining Kelbrid space.(Chapter two)
1. Default Chapter

The irony of it was too great

This was inspired by a trilogy I once read, the concept of the Gars is not exactly unique (hey, doesn't these guys remind you of dwarfs or goblins or whatever?) I decided to write this since there was a general depression going round and everyone is trying to finish off or add to book #54, so, all the characters are here, and you could say this fic took place a while before 47/48. It doesn't matter, just read it. I hope you have plenty of laughs.

As usual, even though I put it under 'humor' its got a serious side too, I mean, the main character is serious. However stupid he is. No, don't think of it as stupid, think about it as mislead and his entire concept of a world is a set of incorrect insights.

I may or may not continue this story to bring out my version of Kelbrid space. But Ax wouldn't be taken and Rachel's not dead.

PS; not all Gars are like Sinline, if a real Gar came across him the resemblance would be a little like you coming across a bunch of cave men/woman. Or a chimpanzee who could read and write. 

This fic may be a bit long, but its worth it. Believe me. 

**GAR**

****The irony of it was too great. A human scientist –whose name is unknown- found out that the inferior creatures called chickens -which had been clucking and crowing underneath human noses for centuries- were in reality, talking to each other. 

**Garkind faced the same kind of irony. But this time, the inferior creatures were called Humans. And they didn't cluck and crow. They mooed. And to think that over all these years they were actually speaking. Hmm.**

**Only, you see, the humans weren't mooing under Gar noses. **

**Quiet the contrary; they mooed far, far above Gar noses, an average of over five feet to be exact.**

**And that's irresistible irony. **

** Sinline. **

If you exclude the difference in size, you could almost mistake a human for a Gar. Fortunately, Gars are not humans. They are different. For one thing, they are only four inches long. And secondly, they live faster lives than humans.

Think about this, a year for one human is ten years for a Gar. Eight years for a human is about the lifetime of the oldest Gar ever. And that Gar, would of course be Gremma, short-tempered lady, but fair, got a whole sack-full of common sense in her skull she has.

So maybe you're thinking why a human never seen a Gar, well, as Sinline said, Gars are fast creatures because they live fast lives, the time it takes a human to swivel it's bloated head round and speak using its foghorn language a Gar would be well hidden under any of the many floorboards of The Mall from that human's sight.

It's not really foghorn language; human talk sounds like a foghorn to any Gar, but most Gars refer to human talk as the mooing of a human. Or simply, mooing sounds.

Sinline had always been awestruck by the similarities of cows and humans. They don't _look_ alike –neither does a Gar look one hundred percent like a human so why make the disastrous assumption that they act like each other? They don't at all- the humans are always grouped together in herds –you could see them walking around in The Mall in the day-time mooing as they do so- and they are always copying each other –does a human have a personality? They do have awfully large heads there must be something in there that is useful.

But they _do_ sound like cows, that's for sure, in fact, Sinline never could recall a human talking properly, they never ever move their lips and tongues fast enough, and they speak in this loud blurred sound, like a foghorn. Wait. A human sounds more like a cow than a foghorn so why…

Anyway, Sinline thought, where was I? Oh yes, a Gar is not a human –if you forget the size- Gar have black beady eyes and round huge bellies –if they're well fed- some got beards while others haven't got one, their noses are large and round, their tan coloured skin's a bit leathery in appearance and they wear clothes the colour of rainbows, these would be The Mall Gars and the ones wearing rags (sorry Gremma but as skilled as your knitting is; a two headed pullover with ten holes is a rag, or, possibly, a mutant) the colour of mud are The Outsiders.

Explaining would make things easier, an Outsider, which would be Sinline and ten more of his family members, had always lived in the open, the outside -as opposed to the Mallers who lived inside and never believed in an outside.

In hope of saving his family and the whole of Gar-kind (at that time Sinline thought he and his family were the only Gars alive, so you could imagine his shock when he found out that there were more living –in a Mall) Sinline cleverly hatched a plan that consisted of hitching a ride on one of the many lorries that stopped for ten minutes –or a bit more- near _Starbucks_. This lorry –red it was- took him and his tribe inside The Mall –at that time he didn't know it was called The Mall. And met a whole civilization of Garkind.

Unfortunately, these Gars didn't understand what Outside is. When Sinline tried to get one of them (Aneeloo, who is now a friend) to come to the Lorry Nest, sorry, the Garage –so many new words to learn- the Gar was scared out of his mind. Completely.

The rest of the Gars cased the Outsiders –Sinline and his tribe- as 'Looney' –it means crazy- because as everyone knows there is no such thing as outside and the only world a Gar knows about, is a world where there are ceilings and walls, they couldn't for their lives imagine what a roofless room would look like. There has to be a wall. A roof. Limits. The world could be seen and it's ends touched. Sinline felt sorry for them, and kept on repeating silently; _if only they knew_.

But he only sympathized with them because he knew what it was like to be unable to imagine, unable to understand. It was one thing not being able to imagine an open meadow and not understand that the sky is endless. It's a completely different thing trying to imagine space and it's endless volumes. Sinline learnt about space through the _Thing_ -you'll get to know about it later.

The Gars living in The Mall are divided into tribal families depending on where they are situated in the several levels/grounds/floors of The Mall. There is also the tribal head at each department or section of The Mall.

It is dangerous to go around without having a department or level to belong to, so Silnline and his tribe declared themselves as Gars from the 'Ground Level' but Frith, cunning lad, decided to live with Dorsam, the engineer from _Radio shack_. _Radio shack _belonged to Dorsam and all of his followers who were clever with the dangerous biting thing called electricity.

Sinline was under one of the many floor boards of _The Gap_ pondering aimlessly and staring at the _Thing_ Trottle gave him, officially, Trottle had been leader of Sinline's tribe, but he is a very old Gar -six human years old, sixty Gar years- and decided to hand over the _Thing_ to Sinline -it is a tradition passed on from tribe's man old to new. Trottle said Sinline was very worthy of such a thing since he proved himself leader through the journey to The Mall.

_Thing_ is something -as Sinline said- that had been handed from Gar to Gar over the generations, no one knows what it is, and Sinline had always wondered about _Thing_, if it were so important and so wise and helpful why doesn't the black box speak out? (That's what _Thing _looks likes, a black grey shiny box with flashing lights all over it and whirling sounds inside)

Trottle, in his past days of ruling, had always conferred with _Thing, _and he was always saying '_Thing_ told me to do this.' and '_Thing_ told me to do that.' or '_Thing_ thinks best that we should... '. But it was only recently that Sinline discovered -actually, Trottle told him- that he never spoke to _Thing_ and _Thing_ never spoke to him, and that his father (previous tribesman) had told him to play along and make people think that _Thing_ is saying things or whatever. 

The first time any of them heard the _Thing _speak was when Sinline went ahead with operation Lorry, (you know, the one were Sinline ended up in The Mall) But these days _Thing_ no longer spoke -it only did so when change is about to occur- so it did nothing more than sit on the ground and grin in a way only a metal box could.

"Humans are odd, they are. " Gremma, a Gar elder from Sinline's tribe was saying to him as he stared at one of the wooden floorboards of _The Gap_, "They do very peculiar things, gosh, and they even have very peculiar names! "

Well, everyone knows that, Sinline thought, humans are more than odd they're stupid. But when you think of all the things humans do and add them together you get more than your average stupid. You get a stupid, stupid person.

They don't even know the proper use of language, sure, humans are great with signs, they know where to put them, they know how to obey them, but I don't think they understand them fully.

For instance, in the lifts, there is a sign saying; ten people only. And what do you know? Only _two_ go in. Simple human nature; ignorance, it will never change.

Sinline looked over at Gremma, "Huh?"

"I said, 'humans are odd'. They got strange names."

"What is it this time?" Sinline said tolerantly. Sinline was a bit young for tribesman, being two and a half years old an all (twenty five Gar years) but Gremma had said to her husband Trottle (previous Tribesman) that Sinline's a good respected Gar and he deserves being Tribesman.

He also had to be tolerant with Gremma because the creature was eighty Gar years old, (and as Sinline said previously, this is as old as a Gar would ever be) plus, Gremma isn't like all of the other females. She uses her brain for one thing, and secondly, she's into reading and trying to understand things. Trottle gets aggravated by this –he can't read and nor does he understand new things.

"I were reading this book, I was. And it said radioactivity -you know, I figured it was what a radio does; we've seen a radio before haven't we? In the lorry, there was one, and it made these weird noises, humans of course." She paused then said, "Anyway, it said that Radioactivity was discovered by _Accident_. I've never heard someone called Accident before have you?"

Sinline shook his head, figuring out Gars was hard work, figuring out humans was an overload.

Mostly, Sinline pitied humans, they can't even remember their own names, the ones wearing polyester suits, in the food court, always had their names printed on tags which are pinned on their shirts, they keep it there in case they forgot their names, poor things.

But humans, no matter how dumb they are, do obey The Signs, and you can always predict what's going to happen by reading them, not a lot of Gars can read, the ones that can are mostly from the books department or from the stationery department, and they have secure positions in Gar society.

Mainly, anyone from the STBK dep. (Stationery and Book Department) had been promoted or selected, they are classed as higher Gars, but higher than the STBK was the Gar-Tender. And to know the Gar-Tender you have to know this:

All Gar's believe that when they die, they meet _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ He is the creature that 'founded' The Mall. Meaning that he had made The Mall available for Gar civilization, meaning; he _found_ The Mall.

Now, the Gar-Tender is the leader of Garkind. He is the one that tells all Gars what is expected form them, he makes sure that the people living in The Food Court do their jobs and deliver food to Gars in the Gar food Court where Gars socialize and get to meet new people and so on. As does he sees to it that the departments don't engage in long pointless wars and tries to straighten out misunderstandings before war occurs.

Sinline thought about _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ and didn't believe that such a Gar existed. But he had to admit that someone must have found The Mall, and when he had talked to the Gar-Tender about it he said;

All good Gars will meet _Albertson 1984 (est.) _after they die, and it had been proved that _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ founded the Mall_._ It said so in one of the books in the Manager Room.

Manager appeared to be the human that lived temporarily in the Manger Room (he was only there in day-time), that's his name, it says so on the door. M-A-N-A-G-E-R. His name. Sinline thought that all humans, as he had to repeat, find it difficult to remember things, names are one of the things they constantly forget and where they are suppose to go is another. They do have a lot of arrows that point out 'entrance' and 'exit' and they have a map of The Mall in case a human forgot where it was or where it was suppose to be going and how to get there.

Maybe this was an incorrect insight, maybe the humans had maps and arrows and stuff because…because…no it's not…_not_ because they _wouldn't_ remember! Yes! That was it, maybe they _couldn't_ remember. He knew Gremma had problems remembering things she did a few minutes earlier, but she boasts that she could remember what she did when she was a one-year-old.

That's pointless, Sinline thought; I'd rather have known what I was just doing previously. Imagine if I were hunting and I've forgotten that there was a new fox den in the area. Of course I'd remember that I hunted in 'this' meadow when I was a one-year-old but I wouldn't remember that a day ago I discovered that the fox moved in.

Hmm. But that's where signs came in right? And arrows too. I'd have needed two signs. One that said "My Burrow" and another that would say "Danger, Fox den" then I'd have all sorts of colourful arrows pointing the way for me so when I found myself staring at a sign that says "Danger, Fox den" I'd have time to scream at least. Yeah, I'd shout out to the others hunting something like, "Nah! It turns out the blue arrows points to the Fox den. RUN!"

It is a bad thing to be forgetful. Very, very bad. He knew what happens to a Gar when she or he is grabbed by a hungry fox.

"What do you reckon young lad?" Gremma asked.

"What you say?"

"_Thing_, should you speak to it?"

"But it doesn't speak unless it got electricity near it, we learnt that, besides, _Thing_ said he'd only contact me if it would, or could, help me."

"Sorry, I didn't understand you."

"It's like this." Sinline said, "_Thing_ told me it were a computer, for a ship, it says that it had been forgotten by Garkind, because we lived for long time forgetting about our people from the stars, it says that generations had paced and Gars forgot everything there was about space and all. It says its main mission is to help me get us back."

"Back where?"

Sinline leaned against the ground and looked at the floorboards as if they were something special, "The stars."

"What is a ship?"

"It's like a lorry with wings, it flies like a bird." Sinline frowned, "No, that would be an arrow-plane. I suppose a ship is a sort of arrow-plane but without all the shaft, pointed head, and feather at the butt, hmm, but the arrow-planes are metal, right? It doesn't have feathers in its backside like an arrow, I've seen the planes, they're very small they are, they shine too in the sky. Plus they have wings. Funny. You'd have thought humans called them anything but arrow-planes, maybe silver birds?"

His friend, the Gar-tender's son, Aneeloo had talked to him about the arrow-planes. He stated that in the dictionary an arrow-plane is 'a powered heavier-than-air aircraft that had fixed wings from which it derives most of its lift.'

Sinline did not completely understand.

But then again, Aneeloo never saw a real arrow-plane. Sinline had though. But he couldn't see why it was 'heavier-than-air' the arrow-planes he saw were always small –smaller than sparrows and robins, that's for sure- and they floated. If they could float then they are defiantly lighter than air.

But what was air anyway? It was just something that was there. You couldn't see it. Or touch it. But you noticed it when it is gone, Sinline knew this from experience; lakes did not have air in them.

Although this just brings out something funny and strange, a Gar who jumps in the lake is extremely heavy and would fall to the bottomless bottom. Then, as if by magic, the Gar would pop up and float, becoming lighter than the lake.

But the Gar is dead. Could it possibly be that a dead Gar is lighter than a living one? It didn't make sense. Maybe the 'you' in you is simply too heavy for water.

But then again, when the you in you is gone, and you could float magically, you'd still be heavier than air. It is very confusing.

"What is a star?" Gremma asked she looked at him with confused eyes. It was obvious that she hadn't understood what a ship was and decided to let it go.

"Eh?" Sinline was shaken out of his deep thoughts.

"A star, what is it?"

"A star is a sun."

"Then why didn't you call it sun before, silly boy."

"Because it's another sun."

"You don't make any sense to me, try Quien she's the one with the free mind, I'm getting too old for this."

Sinline nodded, Quien was Gremma's niece, she too could read, and she was a very open minded Gar, ready for change, like Dorsam the engineer who owned _radio shack_.

"I'll go find her. Do you know where she would be?"

"Ye." Gremma said, "Take _Thing_ with you, she'd be at the dressing room of _The Gap_."She paused and with her beady eyes stared at _Thing_, then she crinkled her leathery brown nose and said, "Urgh, hate that melt thing."

"_Metal is the word you are looking for._" The _Thing_ buzzed back to life. Sinline almost dropped it by surprise.

"You're back."

_"Correction; I never left."_

"I see." Sinline muttered.

"_I was merely on standby mode, there is no point in wasting my energy, electricity is good but primitive for my demands._"

"I see."

"_No you don't, your eyes are unable to see past my outer casing._"

Sinline hurried over to one of _The Gap_'s dressing rooms and indeed he found Quien. With her was Aneeloo. Aneeloo is a Mall Gar and a good friend of Sinline and Quien. With Aneeloo was Bobo. His trained rat.

"Hallo all."

"Hey Sinline." Quien said.

"Hey Sinline." Aneeloo echoed.

"What are you doing?" Sinline wondered.

"Quien was telling me all about the outside." Aneeloo said in hurried excitement, "She was telling me about the air conditioner outside and what it does to all the things, but I don't understand, where is the actual air conditioner that blows the air? And why can't you adjust the setting in your winter season?"

"It's wind." Quien muttered, "Why can't he understand me? Wind isn't controlled by anything, you can't see it, it is there. All by itself."

"Ah, the Gar-Tender's son will need time to understand…only if wants to go outside…" Sinline muttered.

"No, no. Thank you." Aneeloo fell silent remembered the last time he tried to do that.

"Quien. _Thing_ is back."

"_I have to repeat again; I have not left at all_." _Thing's_ exterior lights flashed red and green and then something whirled; Sinline thought that this was its show of annoyance. But how could a metal box be annoyed?

"That's great. I think it means it's time for a change."

"Yeah-"

Krrrrreeeeeeekk!

A horrible sound came from somewhere above them and a human entered _The Gap_'s dressing room, no two humans to be precise.

"That's odd." Aneeloo whispered as they hid from sight. He was the one with more experience with the humans who entered The Mall "I've never known two humans to enter at once."

The humans stripped off their clothes in their usual very slow manner and dropped them slowly in a bag, they then left the bag on the floor.

A look of concentration flit across their stupid faces, and they started to change.

Aneeloo screamed. The humans were changing form; it was changed in to a monster.


	2. Chapter Two

New Page 1

"Nooooo." Aneeloo wailed.

"Shut up! It will hear you!"

"Oh, _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ save us!" Aneeloo continued wailing.

Quien kicked Aneeloo in the stomach and he no longer wailed, instead he made strange chocking sounds.

One of the humans changed into an insect, the other went into a strange creature that looks sort of like a blue cow and a human then went into insect, but Sinline had never seen an insect like that before, he's seen flies, mosquitoes, bugs…

"It a Co-roach." Aneeloo said proudly, he seemed to lose part of his fear now that he knew what he was looking at, "I've seen one before in a book, and I've seen one before in life."

"It's coming near us." Sinline whispered, "What should we do?"

"I though you would have an answer for that." Quien whispered back.

"Let's run." Aneeloo hissed, "Look at that thing is so disgusting, I've never been so close to one before in my life."

"I thought you said you saw one before."

"What? Oh yeah, but then I was on a shelf and it was on the ground, besides it was dead."

"Let's talk to it." Quien suggested.

"What are you, out of your mind girl?" Aneeloo hissed, "Look at that thing in its mouth. Urgh. It will eat us."

"It will not eat us." Quien said stubbornly, "It used to be a human. And humans are dumb and they certainly _don't_ eat Gars. Foxes and hawks do though."

"Then _you_ go talk to it…Hey! Sinline!"

Sinline walked calmly out of his hiding place and stared at the Co-roach. He thought that someone had to go and talk to the thing, and he knew it would be neither of Aneeloo or Quien.

"Err." What should he say? "Hallo?"

"Oh that's jolly good way to-" Aneeloo was sneered for a few seconds, Sinline heard a thump and Aneeloo was making those strange chocking sounds again, Quien must have punched him in the gut.

The Co-roach's two long sticks wavered; it changed direction and walked in a quick irregular fashion towards Sinline.

Sinline backed away, then in a neutral voice he said, "Are you from the stars? The _Thing_ told me strange things come from the stars."

What are you? A voice said sharply.

Aneeloo screamed from where he was hiding, "_Albertson 1984 (est.)_ save me! What did I ever do to deserve such a-" More chocking sounds.

How many of you are there? A second voice.

"Three."

Tell them to step out. Again, the second voice.

Quien and Aneeloo edged towards Sinline after he signalled for them to do so slowly, then _Thing_ talked. "_As a matter of fact; currently there are approximately three hundred thousand of them._"

What's that? The second voice hissed.

"_Approximately three hundred thousand._" _Thing_ repeated patiently, obviously thinking that the humans were slow. Maybe they too, like Sinline, cannot imagine what a thousand was. Let alone three hundred thousand.

I heard that, The second voice said in annoyance, I said what is that thing?

"It's the _Thing_." Quien offered.

The what? First voice inquired.

"_Thing_." Sinline said. "Gars had been handing it over from tribesman to tribesman over the generations. We don't know what thing is. But we do know it is important."

_What?_ Second voice spoke out.

"_Actually, they do refer to me as 'The Thing', I am in reality not just a thing, I am what is left out of the Gar ship Zitron, these Gars have no idea what I am, but maybe you would comprehend; I am a computer. _"

I comprehend. Voice number one said.

"_Of course you do, you are an Anda-_"

"A computer is a programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data." Aneeloo said proudly, "I read that in a dictionary."

"What does that mean?" Sinline asked Aneeloo, he had problems understanding words like program and data.

"Got no clue."

"_An Earth Gar is a being able to recite pointless pieces of information that is incomprehensible to its peanut sized brain." _Then as an afterthought it said, and Sinline would have sworn it was smirking,_" Shameful isn't it?_"

"_Thing_!" Sinline gasped.

"_That was an accurate description, don't you agree?_"

Umm, sorry to interrupt, but what are you doing here? Voice number two asked.

"What are we doing here?" Aneeloo snorted like the all arrogant Gar-tender's son he was, "What are you doing here, this is Gar territory."

Then what about all the humans? The first voice said in amusement.

"Pa, humans, they do nothing more than obey The Signs, and moo along like cow herds; they are nothing special." Aneeloo sneered.

"_That is _not_ an accurate description._" _Thing_ muttered lowly. But the co-roaches/humans did not hear it. "_In fact, it is a lousy job._"

Say _what_?! The second voice said.

The first voice laughed and said, I'll say.

Ax! The second voice yelped.

I couldn't help myself Marco. My apologies.

That's very humble of you Ax.

"We told you who we are, now you tell us who are you." Sinline said.

We are Andalites. The second voice snapped.

_ "No one of you is a human. I do know the difference. Only one of you is Andalite."_

Silence.

Tell you what. Will you come with us?

"Where?"

Somewhere we could talk. In private.

"This is not private?"

Creeeeeekkkk!

Another two humans entered. They started to strip their clothes but stopped, one of them bent down and stared at Sinline and his friends.

Its hand stretched forward.

"Arrrrgh!" Aneeloo screamed. "Ruuuuuuuun!"

No! The first voice shouted, They are our friends.

"_Albertson 1984 (est.) _hel-"

"Will you shut up about him!" Quien raged, "Look he doesn't exist."

"No!" Aneeloo moaned, "_Albertson 1984 (est.) _forgive the outsider, she didn't mean to offend you and I-ARRGHHHHHHHH!!!"

The outstretched hand grabbed him and Sinline, since he was standing next to Aneeloo; the next few moments were terrifying; the hand lifted both of them in the air and stopped a few inches away from a human's face.

"_Albertson 1984 (est.)_ please don't let this human eat me. Oh, please. Please. I'll do anything, anything at all I-"

The human –this one had blue eyes and extremely long 'blond' hair- narrowed its eyes at the blabbering Gar, no doubt it did not understand what he was saying.

Sinlne blinked his eyes at it. The human moved its lips in an extremely slow fashion and jerked its head –slowly of course- at the human standing next to it, this human rushed –as rushed as a human ever is- closer to its hand.

"Oh, good. Now we're entertainment?" Sinline muttered, he had a bad feeling about this.

The new human had brown skin, black hair and dark eyes, it made a stupid frown and reached out for us. One of it's huge sausage like fingers reached down to touch Sinline, but Sinline –always the good hunter equipped with excellent Gar senses- rolled out of the way and stabbed the finger with his newly made spear –he had to get rid of his old wooden one became _Thing_ advised him that 'metal' was a better material for a weapon.

It then said something about DCFR -Diamond Crystal Focused Ray- it said would be a million times more effective but a bit out of date with the rest of Garkind.

Sinline didn't quite understand why, the rest of Gar kind –living in The Mall- had no weapons at all.

Maybe electricity was a weapon Sinline thought; he'd remember to ask Dorsam the engineering Gar from _Radio shack_.

In any case, as unfortunate as it was; in his burrow Sinline hadn't known about metal, it was certainly heavier than wood but could be made to be extremely sharper. He hadn't had the chance to try it out. Now he had. And he did. He was extremely pleased with the result.

The human mooed loudly. And its bleeding finger retreated into its mouth.

"Pah! Human!" Aneeloo yelled, "Get it Sinline!"

"What do you mean 'Get it'?" Sinline demanded, "It has us!"

"Of course, it does, bu-aaaaahhhhhhh!" Aneeloo squealed right in the middle of his word.

At some unknown signal, the human's hand closed squeezing Sinline and Aneeloo close together, then the hand with its finger like cage, descended in a somewhat fast manner. The floor jumped back into view. Sinline launched himself out followed by a dizzy hobbling whimpering Aneeloo.

"_Thing_?" Sinline called. "Are you there?"

"_Why is it hard for you to understand that I can never be 'gone'?_"

"Quien." Sinline snapped, "Grab _Thing _and let's hurry out of here!"

"_That will be unnecessary, we are not in any real danger._"

Quein looked hesitant.

"Do it!" Sinline hissed. He had made up his mind, the stupid humans may prove themselves violent.

Wait up! Second voice cried, Hey, my friend didn't mean that. She was just curious.

"Humans are capable of being curious?" Quien asked, she looked surprised. "Gosh, a cow can't do that can't it?"

We're not cows. Voice number two said in exasperation. Then it muttered, Man I almost wish Rachel would stomp you.

"Quien, that's not the time." Aneeloo hissed at the younger Gar. He looked at Sinline, "What do we do?"

Sinline had to think quickly. Should he trust them? Were they dangerous? _Thing_ thought that they were not in any danger, but past experience had proved that even _Thing_ could be wrong, Sinline remembered when he had to hatch a plan to export all of the Mallers to a new Mall (The Mall), the old one (The Shop, and at the time they were called Shoppers) became "Out of order" and was going to be "Demolished" at a certain date.

So, even though he had moved a hundred and eighty Gars by actually commandeering a lorry (it took over thirty of Dorsam's engineers and all of the other Gars to pull brakes and manage the gears and the Gar-tender and Sinline along with Dorsam and an engineer waving instructions through red flags to control all this. Steering the wheel was hardest, but it was managed –humans can't drive by the way, they're always going in wrong directions. Poor things, but even on roads there are these arrows and The Signs that they obey. However wrongly.)

Of course, the Gars were terrified of the sky, and never once glanced up at it, when the finally reached The Mall they were extremely happy, and Sinline (However loony he is) became a bit more respected.

Sinline decided to trust these strangers, he firmly believed that if he adopted the run-away-from-anything-new and oh-it-looks-so-terrible, he's be like all the other Gars.

It was disturbing too; the Mall Gars would never come out in the open because they were terrified of it, and why terrified? Because it was new and unfamiliar, something they didn't understand.

The step to understanding is to trust.

But you can't trust a fox once you see one a few yards away from your burrow. The only trust from a fox was that he'd make room for you in its stomach.

This was another disturbing thought, but Sinline shrugged it off. It is a time for him to act boldly.

"Quien?" Sinline said in what he hopped was a strong voice, "Pick up _Thing_ and get ready to follow these strange humans. Aneeloo? You're coming with us, we'll take Bobo too."

Excuse me?

"We will hold on to Bobo; Aneeloo's rat. This way you can carry us to… to wherever it is you wish to take us."Sinline thought about what he said then decided to add for good measure. "I hope you do not intend to harm us. I am putting my trust forward."

Er. What's your name?

"My name is Sinline."

Sinline, we do not intend to harm you, and we will not have to harm you if you _listen_ to what we say. Carefully.

Sinline glared at the Gar-tender's son who was edging away. Once he caught Sinline's glare he froze, hunched his shoulders and with a sigh headed over to Bobo and grabbed on to her restraint.

Trained rats are a sign of wealth in Gar society, not many have them, and even fewer are purebreds. Bobo was a pure breed; her coat was a flawless sandy brown. Aneeloo would have known much more about the types of breeds.

Quien marched over and held on Bobo next to Aneeloo. Sinline grabbed thing and also held on to Bobo. The rat looked surprised at the amount of attention but did not squirm; Aneeloo was whispering something in Bobo's ears.

"You may take us." Sinline said, then he held on to his breath as he watched the blond haired human grab the co-roaches and place them in her pocket.

The darker one grabbed the Sinline, Quien, Aneeloo, Bobo and _Thing_ carefully in two hands. Then it plucked them into it's pocket..

Sinline was plunged into darkness.

A darkness that was very cramped and uncomfortable.

A darkness that became hotter by the second.

A darkness that became nosier as Quein mistakenly kicked Bobo.

Bobo 'epped!' once then fell silent. Aneeloo grumbled about something and Quien hissed something at Aneeloo. _Thing_ remained silent. Sinline climbed to the lip of the pocket and peaked out.

Above and beside him was the dark skinned human. He could see the lips and the bottom of the nose, nothing else but the dark curls that bobbed as it giant stepped out of The Mall and into the daylight.

Sinline felt Aneeloo scrambling up beside him, "A bad choice of fabrics. This creature didn't buy these cloths from The Mall. Hmm, Sinline? Are human eyes faulty with colour?"

There came a defiant but muffled "_No_" from _Thing_.

"Then they must have severe brain disorder. Can't this creature see that its jeans are at least four inches too short? And the colour coordination! Urgh. Sinline, do you think I could take this human to the Gar-tender, my father, later on? It is doing an appalling job of looking after itself and its clothes. _What_ did it wash this fabric with? If it thinks its worthy of meeting _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ in the afterlife then its got to do at least _some_ thinking-"

Aneeloo stopped talking right in the middle of his sentence.

"In _Albertson 1984 (est.)_ name, WHAT is THAT?"

Sinline winced. "You don't have to shout Aneeloo, I can hear you quiet well, what you are looking at is the sky."

Aneeloo started to whimper. "No. No. No. Where are they taking us? Where are they taking us? Where are they-" He broke off crying pitifully, "_Albertson 1984 (est.)_ Hellllllllllp meee. Hellp me-"

"It's just the sky." Quien jumped up to see what was wrong, "Jeez. I thought you wanted to see the sky, remember? We talked about it?"

"Oh, no. Oh, no. That was hours ago. No, that was another _lifetime_. I wouldn't say something as crazy as that. Are you-" He looked up and started to gasp again. "Oh. No. The sky. It's _just_ the sky. It-OHH NOOOO!"

Aneeloo dove back inside. And screamed all over again.

Unfortunately this caused Bobo to go crazy too. She started to claw and kick her way out of the pocket. The human stopped walking.

In Bobo's rush to get out, she dislodged Sinline, Aneeloo, and Quien from the pocket's lip.

They went tumbling over in the air.

"Arrrrrrghhhhhhhhh!" Quien screamed.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Sinline shouted in horror.

"_Albertson 1984 (est.)_ I plead -AARRRRGHHHHH!" Aneeloo spiralled down with Bobo.

Bobo was running down the leg of the human. Quien and Aneeloo managed to grab her.

Sinline wasn't so lucky.

He crashed downwards. Bumped into the human's leg, was roughly slammed into Bobo and then he bounced painfully off the shoe (thankfully soft and old) and on to the ground.

The human was looking down at them.

Sinline looked up in a daze.

And then looked down at his leg. It was twisted in a very, very wrong angle. He felt sick.

He looked up and almost died in shock.

He was sitting not a few inches away of one very big, very mean looking rat. This rat was no Bobo.

Its nose twitched at the air. It smiled an evil smile and leapt at Sinline.

Sinline hadn't had the time to get out his spear. But the time it took the rat to lunge gave him, Aneeloo and Quein enough time to scream.

It also gave enough time for a hawk to soar down and grab Sinline from the ground.

Sinline looked down at the horrified diminishing faces of his friends. The rat had took off. Bobo was staring fixedly upwards.

The humans were so very suddenly so small. Gar size almost.

He looked at the monstrous talons and the overhead beak and screamed in terror.

Stop moving! You'll slip!

But Sinline wasn't thinking. Well, he was, but he wasn't thinking about the hawk anymore.

He was thinking about the long, long way he had to go down.

Sinline almost laughed. Evaded three deaths only to face a fourth totally and entirely his fault. The trip down the human leg hadn't killed him.

The rat hadn't killed him.

The hawk hadn't killed him.

He was going to kill himself.

He looked up and saw that the hawk was no longer so large, small in fact. He looked down and he saw that the trees and humans were no longer Gar sized.

He caught a face of a brown haired human with a pale complexion. He also had caught the horrified look.

But he no longer saw anything. As he hit the ground roughly, his dying thought was; "Is there really an _Albertson 1984 (est.)_?"

That may have been Sinline's wonder, but he should have wondered why the ground had cliffs and mountains made entirely of flesh.

He also should have wondered why the ground was suddenly chest-level with a human.

That thought may have kept him from fainting.

But that wasn't what he thought.

He was thinking of his home in the burrow; a far away simple place that involved no dazzling heights and had plenty of limits.

He was also thinking about his department in The Mall. A new home with even more limits and confinements.

_If only he knew_.

Waking up would mean the end of Gar life in confined limits.

It would mean a quest to find home.

A Gar's _real_ home.

* * * 

Unfortunately, that is another story; if you want me to continue (which I don't know if I should) please tell me. If I don't continue then assume that Sinline had died. But what kind of end is that to this kind of story? 


End file.
